あなたは恋人です
You Are My Love

One: Inoichi and Umeko
Genre: Romance
Word count: 789
Warning(s): Fluff, OC, made-up history, OOC-ness (maybe)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its affiliated characters. Umeko is only partially my own, as she is based on Ino's personality.

My mother had just been hospitalized, and my father asked me to run to a nearby flower shop to get her some roses. I argued that roses were an inappropriate flower for the occasion, and he quickly waved me off with the order to get whatever did suit the occasion, but to be quick about it.

The Yamanaka flower shop was beautiful. I had always envied a family that could own one, and in previous years, when my girlhood fantasies had included marrying a white knight and having fifteen children, I'd dreamt of spending my days amongst the flowers of our garden - which would be the largest garden in all of Fire Country, of course. That dream had died away sometime after I turned fifteen, but my love for flowers remained.

The cool air was the first thing to hit me when I opened the door; the fragrance was the second. The flowers were all sorted by type, with the exception of the display arrangements in their colorful vases. A guy with hair the color of sand looked up when he heard the bell above the door chime.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

I pulled my own platinum blonde hair over my shoulder and smoothed it nervously. "I need to make a get-well bouquet for my mom," I explained, smiling what my father called my 'contagious' smile.

He stood to help me, and the light caught his hitai-ate. Looking back, I shouldn't have been surprised. The Yamanaka clan was best-known for their family jutsu.

Regardless, I asked in awe, "You're a ninja?"

"Yeah," he answered slowly. I suppose his confusion at my excitement was understandable. Ninja were everywhere in Konoha.

He went on proudly, "I'm a chuunin at the moment, but I'll be promoted soon."

"So then... why the flower shop?"

He raised an eyebrow. I'm sure he probably got silly civilians like me asking him the same stupid questions all the time. With a shrug, he answered, "My mom likes her projects, my dad likes my mom. It's probably just another phase of hers."

"Oh, I hope not," I blurted earnestly. "This place is wonderful!"

He sighed. "Then you work here. I'm missing out on training when I have to look after the shop." He wandered over to the display of daisies and held one up for me to look at. "These are pretty," he said. "Want them in your bouquet?"

I laughed. I didn't mean to offend him, it was just funny to me. "Only if I'm asking my mom out on a date."

"What?"

"Don't you know anything about the language of flowers?"

"I'm a boy," he stated blankly, as if it was an excuse.

"How about white stargazer lilies, peonies, and yarrows?" I asked him.

At his blank stare, I rolled my eyes and sighed in mock exasperation. Waving a beckoning hand, I moved along the displays, plucking out each of my selected flowers and handing them to him. Once that was finished, I picked a pale pink vase and set to arranging the flowers just-so.

"Hey, you're pretty good," he commented, making me blush. "I should tell my mom to give you a job here," he muttered, more to himself than to me. I answered anyway.

"Really? That would be so great if you did!"

"Sure. What's your name?"

"Umeko. What's yours?"

"Inoichi," he answered with a smile, and I was dazzled by how blue his eyes were.

Then I caught a glimpse of the clock.

"I've been here for twenty minutes already?! My dad is gonna be so mad! How much for this?"

"It's on me. Thanks for the lesson," Inoichi said, snorting at the last bit.

"Are you sure?"

He winked. Winked. It had never entered into my romantic notions that I would enjoy being winked at, but my heart fluttered when he did it.

"I'm sure," he insisted. "Just come back tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," I said as I hastily made my way to the door.

"I hope your mom feels better soon!" he called after me, just before the door shut.

After that, I started working at Yamanaka's Flowers. After a year, just as Inoichi had predicted, his mother became bored with her little shop, and she asked me to manage the business for her.

That night, as we were closing up the store together, Inoichi scoffed. "It doesn't seem right," he said.

"What doesn't?" I asked absently, already planning my work for the next day. Maybe a display of azaleas by the door...?

He scrunched up his face in a 'you-should-already-know' way. "You taking over Yamanaka's Flowers when you're not even a Yamanaka," he replied matter-of-factly.

"So what?" I asked, a little irritated. "You want me to turn down her offer?"

"No," he muttered, looking away. A moment later, he produced a daisy and a velvet box from his pocket. "I want you to be a Yamanaka," he said.

I almost fainted. There was no way he could be asking what I thought he was asking. But there was no doubt about it when he popped the lid of the box open, and a modest diamond sparkled at me in the moonlight.

"Inoichi?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want fifteen children?" I asked.

He looked around confusedly. Eventually, slowly, he answered, "No...?"

I smiled at him. "Neither do I."

A/N: This is just some random thing I started doing to cure up some of the writer's block I've been experiencing. I need something to do between trying to write action scenes for Wanted. Some fluff was in order for my poor brain. Plus, sometimes you just need to take a step back from all of the pairing-war drama. And what better way than to write about couples that are already together?
Anyway, even though Umeko is technically an original character, I don't really see her as such. While I might write about Minato and Kushina, or Fugaku and Mikoto, or Shikaku and Yoshino at some point, for now, I'll probably stick with giving a second parent to the people who already have one. And I doubt I'll touch on Sakura, Tenten, or Lee, because I'd have to construct both parents for each of them.